I am a lover of both thin and thick dread extensions. There are pluses and minuses to them both, but depending on how you want to wear them and the look you’re going after they can both be great. So let’s start with thin dreads; I’m talking super thin like this:

These are actually wool yarn dreads that were hand spun for me by LIVEtheHAPPY of Etsy. Major plus of thin dreads is that they will lie more naturally than thick dreads. There’s not a problem of them sticking out here or there because they are more flexible (wool yarn dreads even more so flexible than thin synths). You can toss your head around a bunch and the thin dreads will lie back down easily. They are great for a more natural look and wild colors too. Don’t think that thin = less volume either. You just have to stuff more on your head. For instance, the wool yarn dreads I’m wearing above are installed 2 at a time, so that I’m wearing somewhere just over 100 DEs, but only roughly 50 sections. That’s how I install thin yarn dreads all the time. Quick + lots of volume. They can be put up into buns and ponytails easily as well. They can even be braided together in sections for a Mohawk look:

The downside? Well because they’re more flexible it can be harder to achieve really big, high styles. It can be done, it just takes more work and time that’s all.

Now let’s talk thick dreads. Here I am wearing some:

Thick dreads are great because they go up into insane styles so easily. A few rubber bands and you can have horns; case in point:

They’re also great because it doesn’t take as long to get lots of volume. Each dread can be put into a pretty big section of hair. The down sides here are that they can get a bit out of control and not lie right. This usually resolves itself after a few days of wear once the roots loosen a bit, but it can still be a bit awkward. They’re also harder to sleep with since the individual dreads are bigger and therefore not as easy to move around/squish. Weight, especially with long, thick, synth dreads, can be problematic for people as well.

All in all, it just depends on what you want. I’d suggest trying both if you’ve got the money to spend. Myself, I wear long, thin, wool yarn dreads the most because these days I’m not much into high, spiked, big hair styles. When I do wear thicker dreads, they’re usually short so the weight doesn’t bother me. If you’re new to all this, I’d say go down the middle with some sharpie thick dreads to start; then you can decide what you want more—more natural, lay down dreads or more spiky, stick up dreads. What’s your preference, vet dread extensionists? And why?